Chicken Little (2005)

Directed by: Mark Dindal
Produced by: Randy Fullmer
Music by: John Debney (rumored, previously worked with Mark Dindal on The Emperor's New Groove)

Budget: $60 million

Production Starts On: Early 2003
Release Date: 2005

CAST

The Ugly Duckling... Sean Hayes
Chicken Little's mom... Estelle Harris
The main wolf in sheep's clothing... Penn Jillette

STORY

In a universe completely populated with talking animals, Chicken Little's wildly active imagination and tendency to overreact have made her an outsider at home and in her community. When she nearly destroys the town in the great "sky is falling down" debacle, an angry mob forces Chicken Little to shape up. She heads off to Camp Yes-U-Can where she meets other animals with challenges of their own. But when Chicken Little discovers that the camp counselors have a dastardly plan, she will have to overcome her history of paranoia and summon her newfound courage in order to thwart the evildoers…

INTERESTING FACTS

Chicken Little was already the subject of a 1943 eight-minute short directed by Clyde Geronimi (Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp) for the Walt Disney studios. Produced during World War II, this was one of a series of four special animated films produced by the Disney Studios at the request of the U.S. government for the purpose of discrediting totalitarianism in general and Nazism in particular. In the original version of this cartoon, Foxey Loxey reads the book "Mein Kampf." In a re-released version, the title has been changed to read "Psychology"--supposedly at Walt Disney's request, since he wanted the cartoon to have a more lasting appeal. The 2005 feature-length film is very likely to have a happier ending, since Foxy Loxy ate all the chickens and ducks at the end of this 1943 short!

Disney discreetly put together a team in very early 2001 to start work on this project. Actual production is expected to begin in early 2003.

In September 2001, Laughing Place revealed that Disney was very anxious to produce a satire of fairy tales, in the view of Shrek's success. The producer and director of The Emperor's New Groove were given the go-ahead to begin production on a satirical version of Chicken Little. This new feature film would be produced using CGI.

A reliable source at AICN confirmed in October 2001 that "a wildly comic all CGI version of Chicken Little that's being put together by the same team that did The Emperor's New Groove."

Chicken Little had initially been envisioned as a mix of CG and traditional animation but is now being thought of as strictly computer animated film.

A casting call sheet was released in February 2002, confirming that Randy Fullmer will produce, and Mark Dindal will direct: the casting director is looking for a female, 16-40 years old for the role of Foxy Loxy. "The ultimate school bully. Even with a mouthful of braces, Foxy knows just how to antagonize her fellow classmates and campers, much to her own amusement. Foxy Loxy, Goosey Loosey and Ducky Lucky form a trio of troublemakers whose favorite target is Chicken Little…" And a male, 16-40 years old, for Runt of the Litter. "Grew up as the smallest member of his family and still sees himself as a "wee little helpless pig" -- even though he now weighs in at a formidable 900 pounds. Runt has an undeniably big heart and is selfless in his support of others, especially Chicken Little upon her arrival at camp…"

Michael Eisner presented at the February 2002 stockholder's meeting in Hartfor a title card for the movie, "which showed two CGI chicken feet sticking out from under a rumpled white theatrical curtain, on which was written -- in lowercase type -- Disney's Chicken Little."

An insider reports that "this project is already in deep poo poo. People are running away from it like it's Anthrax. A lot of people on it that dont know what they are doing, but are good ass kissers and looking to scratch and claw their way to the top, crushing everyone else in the process.. politically crap galore.... They are crewing up for it constantly cause everyone is running from it.. it sounds like a nightmare.. too bad."

Variety announced in late April 2002 that Emmy winner Sean Hayes would star as the voice of the Ugly Duckling in Disney's animated Chicken Little.

In May 2002, Thomas Schumacher, the president of Disney's animation division, confirmed that Chicken Little was in production as a 3-D film, being drawn by C.G. artists and retrained traditional animators. A month later, he announced that Chicken Little was being readied for 2005, and was targeted at around $60 million.

An insider reported in April 2003 that "the animation being done is said to be absolutely first rate. Storywise--apparently there's some difficulty. Well into production, they decided recently to change the main title character from a girl to a boy! To me, that's usually a sign that they're still groping for a story that works. Then again, I know from experience that all productions like these go through changes, often midway. We'll see how it turns out..."

Disney's chief of animation David Stainton revealed in an April 2003 interview that he had put two high-profile projects, Chicken Little and My Peoples, on hold because he said they needed more focus. "There's a point in every movie where the whole thing falls apart, that moment where you look at it and say, 'We have to retrench,' " Stainton said. "It was that time."

Jim Hill reported on April 30, 2003 that Disney Animation chief David Stainton "supposedly ordered that--in order to make the movie's central character more sympathetic--that the filmmakers change Chicken Little from a boy to a girl." Disney insiders added that "from the discussions in the hallways, it is going positively forward, with a crew continuing working on it. This go and stop process is nothing new. Give me a animated movie title that hasn't gone through this process of re-working the script during production?"

'Boo' supplied our first look at the title character on August 11, 2003 and mentioned that the film would take place in the town of Oakey Oaks.

Mouse Planet's David Koenig reported on August 14, 2003 that there were only about 60 traditional 2-D animators left in Burbank's Walt Disney Feature Animation building. The latest cutback came two weeks ago, after 13 traditional animators submitted five scenes they had done on computer to vie for six 3-D spots left to cast on Chicken Little. "The real controversy of this," noted an onlooker, "is that they were pitted against one another and the playing field wasn't fair. Those who just finished the training program called 'Boot Camp' were up against those who finished Boot Camp six months ago and had more time to finesse, complete and present a more finished test. Also, they purposely entered more people into the training program, anticipating that the majority would fail at learning the computer. Well, they were terribly wrong! They all did great. Now they're worried because they don't know what to do with them because they already hired animators from The Secret Lab (Kangaroo Jack, the dragons on Reign of Fire). They hired them on the superficial qualities that they could do a lot of footage. Forget the fact that they can't do a lot of character footage!" A week earlier, six of the animators got the openings on Chicken Little. It looks like the other seven will get the boot. Consider the loss of talent: Randy Haycock (Tarzan's Clayton, Atlantis' Princess Kida); John Pomeroy (The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, The Rescuers, Atlantis' Milo); Richard Hoppe (The Black Cauldron, Beauty & the Beast); James Lopez (Hercules' Pain, Emperor's New Groove's Tipo); as well as Shawn Keller, Mark Pudleiner and Dougg Williams. Officially, most of the seven were still "working" for Disney, since their contracts all ended at different times (some extending into 2004).